Hello,
As some of you may know, I joined the Pentax ranks a couple months ago. Being a former Nikon shooter (meager two years) to shooting with Canon for several years I was at a point where I didn't think there was anything left to do. I was content.
When I was in the range for an upgrade for my 50D, I naturally was very intregued by the Canon 7D and the Nikon D300s... I didnt want to jump over to ANY brand because of my investment of Canon gear, and my former love for those products. Those two cameras body only were still more than I wanted to spend on a body. One of the big aspects of moving to one of those was for proper weather sealing. Here in Iowa I love to risk my gear in high winds, thunderstorms, and tornadoes. This was very appealing to me, however in the Canon camp you don't get proper weather sealing till you spend a minimum of 1600 and upwards to the vaunted 1D series of 5-8000. Those were out of my reach.
Call it boredom or just general lack of excitement and budgets tightening. I wanted something that was new to me... different but it had to be highly durable and affordable. I started researching other less advertised camera brands. I was thinking that maybe there was a really nice brand out there that offers great prices and great products because there is no "name tax". Pentax.
Now, after countless hours of reading forums and reviews. Reading that many Pentax followers were extremely happy with their cameras I was getting more excited. I was very excited to hear that Pentax has kept legacy mount compatibility. Excellent glass at extremely great prices! I was getting much closer to giving Pentax a try. Only took a few posts on this great forum to find out that the Pentax name is still highly regarded.
As some of you know by now, I did switch. I have become enamored with my new Pentax! However something changed. Something happened during my switch that was much more than gear or glass. I discovered manual photography. See previous to me (in my lifetime) manual shooting has never been talked about. From the Nikon camp it was talked about a bit, Canon always seemed as though those days were over, not Pentax. People here talk about it and still use it on a regular basis.
Litterally my first lens for my K-7 that arrived before the body did, was the highly regarded 50mm 1.7 M series. Now I ordered my 16-45 based on recommendations here and for the first week or two, I never touched the M. Then I finally picked it up and mounted it. I was really bad with manual focus, I relied so much before on AF that I didn't have an eye for it. I thought I would never do it again, I just didn't quite have exposure and the focus right. I kept doing it, kept on trial and error. Then... I finally was getting it, and the photos were looking better and better! I discovered something so exciting to me, photography became alive to me again in a way I never expected.
Okay, so this is becoming a length of text most people wont read, so I am going to fast forward a bit to present day.
To this day, I have collected 6 SMC M lenses. Manual has become something that I prefer to do now. I find it highly rewarding. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I am beginning to trust my instincts. I have stopped chimping my shots even! A good example of this was last week. I went to a Roller Derby. I took nothing but my 50/1.7 and sat in the "suicide seating" where you were almost guaranteed to get a face of lace and skates. I took a few shots and admittedly I had to chimp them because this was the hardest lighting I have ever faced.... along with women on skates... it was going to be a challenge, oh and I wasn't going to use flash!
I got my first few test shots and began shooting the event. At one point in the shoot I stopped thinking, I just did. I was able to take my instincts on shutter speed, ISO, and Aperture and set it and shoot not worried that I was doing it wrong. Now, I did miss shots don't get me wrong. I, however was extremely pleased with what I got. It felt really rewarding to see the fruits of my patience in learning this art/skill. I saw the Canon and Nikon shooters from across the way. Big zooms expensive flash units, they must have thought I was crazy. This whole experience was like everything coming together... my skill, instinct, and gear were all coming together... the camera felt like an extension of myself.
Could I have never switched and done this? Sure.
Does Pentax have the best camera in the world? No.
Would I have acquired this skill/art if I stayed with the Canon/Nikon Camp? I don't know, not for sure anyway. As I said before, in my lifetime AF is about as common as it comes. No one really ventured into talking about non AF or old glass. I wont say that owning a Pentax forced me to do it, but it certainly gave me the freedom to try it.
Thanks to Pentax for allowing me to reach back in time and get a hold of legacy glass which allowed me to delve into a new world, and I want to thank everyone here on the boards for being supportive and giving me a lot of insight on the brand Pentax. I have not regretted coming to this camp for a second.
Last edited by kalison; 06-17-2010 at 01:10 AM.